Dinosaur Birthday Cake with Volcano

 

For the volcano, I made Cocoa Krispie treats and shaped them around a narrow mouth cup. I tried two different size volcanoes. On the actual cake, I went with the larger volcano. There is a slightly larger cup that the treats are molded to in the larger volcano. Then I put a narrow tall shot glass plastic cup inside of the larger cup. This made for filling with dry ice and water a lot easier because I could do that outside of the volcano and then place the shot glass cup in its spot without dripping water on the volcano. And I could add more dry ice and warm water when I wanted to make the eruption again. 

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins (Starbucks Copycat)

 

Ingredients: 

3 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups canned pumpkin (large can)

2 eggs

1/2 cup melted butter

 2 tsp vanilla

Cream cheese filling: 

8 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp flour

2 tsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

Line your muffin tins with paper (24 muffins). Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt together. 

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, pumpkin, melted butter, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. 

Mix until just combined. Scoop into the prepared muffin tins until each cup is about 3/4 of the way full. 

Prepare the cream cheese mixture. Use a hand mixture to combine until it is smooth. Put the mixture in a pastry bag or a Ziploc baggie. Cut off the tip of the bag. Put the pastry bag in the center of each muffin and fill with about 1 Tbsp of the cream cheese mixture. Pull the bag upward as you are filling. 

Bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes. Insert a toothpick in the center of the muffin. If it comes out clean when inserted in the filling part, they are done. These are really good warm. Store leftovers in the refrigerator. 

Apple Cider Slushy

 

Ingredients: 

5-6 cups frozen apple cider

2 cups ice cubes

1 cup apple cider

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Start by lining a large measuring cup with a gallon Ziploc bag. I filled the bag as full as I could get it and still seal it (about 5-6 cups of cider). I pushed out any air left in the bag and put the bag flat in the freezer for about 5-6 hours. 

I filled my blender to the 6 cup line with the frozen cider chunks. Then I added the ice cubes, liquid apple cider, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Blend the mixture and serve. 

I made a smaller batch with 2 cups of frozen cider, 1/2 cup of ice cubes, 1 Tbsp of brown sugar, a couple of sprinkles of cinnamon, and about 1/2 cup of cold cider.